Friday, January 1, 2010

"Johnny's Yo-Yo" and "The Passion of the Pasha"...The night club routines of Ruth Wallis and Fanny Brice

My wife and I are talking about getting a babysitter and going out this weekend. Maybe to a comedy show. In that spirit, here are a couple of videos of great Jewish comedians past. The first is the legendary Fanny Brice. The second is not no so legendary, but wonderfully talented Ruth Wallis. I learned about Wallis only recently through the excellent Idelsohn Society blog. According to Wallis' son ....

"Ruth Wallis wrote words and music to 150+ songs. Her career spanned three decades and four continents. Typecast as solely a risque cabaret performer, her music was eschewed by the media and banned in Boston during the Eisenhower era. December 22nd will mark the second anniversary of my mother's passing. Since then, she's received more notice from the mainstream media than during her 30 year career. "

Fanny Brice was a famous Jewish comedian, singer, and actress, who headlined the Zigfield Follies in the 20's and 30's and went on to earn both a Grammy and a star on the Hollywood walk of fame. Here are clips from Brice's night-club act, where she mixes English and Yiddish into an off-kilter faux-arabic melange.

"Fanny Brice sings, "I'm Sacha, the Passion of the Pasha". This is a compilation of clips from all available sources. Filmed in the late 1920s, it gives us a window into Brice's celebrated nightclub routine. The incongruity of singing in a Yiddish accent the story of an Arab sheik's favorite harem-girl (Sasha? a Jewess?), replete with sexual innuendo. Several more of Brice's brilliant comedy songs can be seen in the commercially released movie Be Yourself."

About Teruah-JewishMusic

I'm a Conservative Jew living in a Christian farm town in Michigan, USA. For me, Jewish music used to be Adon Olam, Hava Nagila, and Fiddler on the Roof. I started getting a clue a few years ago. Jewish music is Klezmer dances, Sephardic ballads and Chassidic niggun. It's thousand year old hymns, three hundred year old Shabbat table songs and 60 year old partisan resistance songs. It's contemporary hip-hop, punk rock, electronica, jazz, and chamber music. In addition to loving its musical and spiritual qualities, Jewish music helps me connect my family with a much broader and diverse Jewish culture than is available locally. The Teruah blog helps me document my exploration and share it with others. Why the name Teruah? Teruah is a call on the shofar on Rosh Hashanna.